RIP Beverly Cleary

    Early in my school career, I discovered my favorite of all places in whatever school I was attending at the time - the library. I absolutely loved the library.  What I remember of kindergarten library visits were mostly the picture books (what else can you read in kindergarten) but by first grade,  I remember visiting and being able to borrow a book. For free!! As long as you returned it two weeks later.

    We moved before second grade and that was when my fondness for the school library really took off. Because I was considered “advanced” as a learner - perhaps because I actually paid attention in first grade - I was able to get additional library privileges. This meant I could go pretty much whenever I wanted - which I did.  And I read and read. So much so that, by the time I was in sixth grade, I was asked to help the librarian choose new books by being able to preview the new ones that had just come in.  What a thrill for a library lover like me.

    Later, in junior high school, I ventured beyond the usual fiction and non-fiction fare, and explored biographies of those who were far less known to me. One in particular - Alone by Richard Byrd - stood out. I always wondered what it would be like to live completely alone under the ice.  Perhaps that was inspired by my two brothers and one sister, ensuring I didn’t know what “alone” meant.

    By high school, the library had gotten bigger and I had discovered the music room - a huge room full of records, more than I could ever imagine. I started borrowing them and, thanks to the arrival of a new cassette recorder, I started to expand my own music library - while still stopping by to borrow a book from time to time.

    What inspired this trip down memory lane was the news this week that Beverly Cleary, the creator of my all time favorite character, Henry Huggins, had died at the age of 104. Of all the books I borrowed as a kid, none excited me as much as the Cleary books. I loved them. The stories were relatable, the characters were realistic and funny and they were just a good way to pass the time. I remember wishing I could live with the Huggins family on Kilkitat Street - it just seemed like a better place to live than wherever I was at the time.

    Beverly Cleary was an inspiration to me, and one that I still call upon today as a teacher. I remember buying my own children their copies of the Cleary classics (“Here, read these. You’ll love them” I said. And along came Harry Potter to prove me wrong.)  Cleary was a living link back to my childhood. I thought she’d live forever.

    It’s  been, in all honesty, only a few months since I last read one of her stories. Henry and the Paper Route to be precise. I think I’ll take one down from the shelf tonight and take another trip down memory lane.  Rest in peace, Mrs. Cleary. And thank you for everything.

HR1, School Elections, and the power of a Lollipop

When I was in elementary school, my best friend decided he wanted to run for student council president. Not that he had any experience in being IN student council, but he thought it might be fun to be president of something. I, being his best friend, was enlisted to be his campaign manager.

We spent hours strategizing on how to best win the election. We focused on promises. Lots and lots of promises. We promised better quality of school lunches. We promised more recess time. We promised free ice cream on Fridays. We even promised no homework on days that ended  in Y. In other words, we patterned our campaign after the real political campaigns of the day.

We handed out lollipops, which was only possible because my dad owned a candy store. We even handed out unopened baseball card packs to select “organizers”, who promised they could influence certain groups of voters. Again, just like real political campaigns.

But when the votes were counted, we lost. And, to be honest, it wasn’t even close.  We didn’t ask for a recount - there was no reason to. I realized that all our voters were only in it for the lollipops.

But, if we had run today instead of 40 years ago, things might have been different. Because I would have taken a page from the Republican party and, instead of trying to get AS MANY votes as possible, I would have sought out ways to suppress the vote. Keep the voters AWAY and we would win!!  What a brilliant strategy.

Hey you, third grader. You just moved here 2 months ago. You can’t vote.  You, kid with the accent. How do I know you’re eligible?? Out you go. You, tall kid in the 6th grade - are you REALLY a student here?? No vote for you.  Had we followed this new strategy, we might have actually won. And we wouldn’t have had to promise free Yoo-Hoo to every student on Mondays.

As juvenile as this strategy sounds, it’s actually the Republican approach to winning elections these days. It’s why HR-1 is so vehemently opposed by the GOP. In other words, don’t try to “persuade” voters to vote for you by promising things that they may actually want (or by offering up real ideas to improve their lives - not by promising more pizza on the lunch menu!). No. Instead, keep voters for the opposition OUT of the election process. Make things more difficult. Basically, suppress the vote!

That is the entirety of the GOP strategy. It’s not about bringing “integrity” to the election process. It’s about bringing smaller numbers of Democrats out to vote. It’s not about improving the messaging or the positioning of the party but rather fighting the fact that the Democrats are making more and more inroads with the middle class.  Make no mistake - the GOP is not about improving the election process. It’s about “fixing” the process to their benefit.

Perhaps I should have borrowed some of their tactics. After all, had we forced the third grade to take a spelling test before voting, that may have swung the election our way. Who knows how things may have changed for us?  Yoo-hoo anyone?